FILIP MARKIEWICZ

Celebration Factory is the product of a Europe in flux and marked by deep crises, but it is also an artistic response to this new sociopolitical paradigm. It does not intend to denounce the system or develop a form of political activism, but rather proposes an almost surrealist language that brings together various modes of expression: visual arts, performance, music, debate, celebration.

Celebration Factory aims to find a fluid and artistic language in accordance with our society in perpe- tual motion. In fact, the Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman talks about a “liquid modernity” where the individual is in the centre. Nothing is fixed, the neo- liberal world teaches us a new way of conceiving our existence. The aim of Celebration Factory is to try to represent this aspect of our society through the form of entertainment: party and celebration become the vehicles of an awareness, a questioning of the system that surrounds us or a resistance to the reign of fear.

Celebration Factory evolves – in a way migrates – through time and space and functions as an experi- mental and artistic laboratory. This migration partly reflects the biography of the artist: born in Luxem- bourg of Polish origin, Filip Markiewicz today lives in Hamburg. The fact that his project was initiated

in 2016 at NN Contemporary Art in Northampton is not a coincidence since Northampton looks back at a large Polish diaspora. From Northampton the project has now travelled to Casino Luxembourg, back to the country that saw Markiewicz grow up.

This second edition of the project shows new productions that the artist has realised during

2018 but also includes a specific programme of performances, concerts, conferences and other interventions that come to integrate and comple- ment Celebration Factory (see pp. 19–20). One of the highlights is undoubtedly Filip Markiewicz’s performance, FAKE BETTER – Because a painting breathes when you look at it, but it dies when you photograph it ... – a reworked and shortened version of Fake Fiction, presented at the Theater Basel in June 2017. The performance is based on texts from Oskar Schlemmer’s diary with the choreographer Tania Soubry, dancer and singer Edsun and actor Luc Schiltz. The performance is kindly supported by Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg.

A publication is in preparation with the support of AEROPLASTICS, Brussels, and C+N Canepaneri, Milan. Its release is scheduled for spring 2019.